[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 57 (Thursday, May 11, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H2559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONTINUED VIOLATION OF AMERICANS' PRIVACY BY ILLEGAL SPYING CANNOT BE 
                               TOLERATED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, the continued violation of Americans' 
privacy by illegal spying cannot be tolerated. Today we found that this 
administration is building a database of millions of Americans' phone 
calls to know who we called and who called us. This is a privacy right 
that needs to be protected and respected, and we have now seen multiple 
violations of this principle where illegal spying has occurred.
  The U.S. Congress must hold hearings. It must stop illegal spying. I 
will be offering an amendment on the defense appropriations bill to 
assure that no taxpayer money can be used for illegal spying to violate 
the privacy rights of Americans.
  The excuse we may hear from the administration is that, no, these 
conversations may not be taped. But who Americans called is a privacy 
right and is protected by the law, and who calls us is a privacy right 
and it is protected by the law. It is protected by section 222 of the 
Communications Act, it is protected by the fourth amendment to the 
United States Constitution, and it is protected by the common sense of 
the American people that we ought to protect our privacy and democracy 
at the same time we are protecting our security. And both can be 
protected.
  The fact of the matter is that the FISA law builds in the ability of 
the Federal Government to in fact crack down on terrorism, something we 
all want to do. We want to have an aggressive program of electronic 
eavesdropping on al Qaeda and other terrorists, but we want to make 
sure that that is done within the law on the simple proposition that 
when the Federal Government does electronic eavesdropping, there is 
another set of eyes overseeing that program: our judges, our judicial 
system.
  What the law demands and Americans demand and the Constitution 
demands is that there is a review through the warrant process so that a 
warrant is obtained when this eavesdropping occurs. And if there is not 
time for that, under the FISA law, warrants can be obtained 72 hours 
thereafter retroactively.
  So what we are saying, and I think the broad swath of the millions of 
Americans who have to know tonight, is that somewhere in this country 
there is a database sitting with your records that belong to you that 
is subject to your privacy that has now been violated by the Federal 
Government, without any review whatsoever by a judge and without review 
whatsoever and oversight of the United States Congress. That is wrong, 
and it has simply got to stop.
  The U.S. Congress has an obligation. It is an obligation to stand up 
to an administration that refuses to abide by the law. This is a 
precious thing, democracy; and democracy is most precious when it is 
threatened. When we are currently involved in a war, it is most 
important to rise to the protection of our privacy.
  We have been involved in these fights for our privacy now for some 
period of time. We have fought to protect the private records of our 
cell phone records from being sold to telemarketers; we have fought to 
prevent our tax records being sold to other people who will market to 
us; and now we need to fight to make sure there is a review and a 
warrant given before, or at least after, our phone records are put into 
some master database with the privacy of millions of Americans 
violated.
  The reason we found out about this today is that the journalists have 
reported on this. Unfortunately, the administration has not been 
forthcoming to tell the U.S. Congress what they have been doing; and 
the U.S. Congress, the folks elected by people from 435 districts in 50 
States, ought to have access to this information so that there can be 
oversight. There is not a review of this.
  In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Congress needs to stand up and 
be counted, stand up and be counted for the privacy rights of America, 
to stop the violation of privacy that we have in our phone records. Who 
we called and who called us is a private matter. It ought to be 
protected, and we are going to ensure that it is.

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